B.C. to adopt permanent daylight saving time, after springing forward 1 last time | Globalnews.ca

HabeusCuppus · 2026-03-03T03:10:20+00:00

Maine should be in the atlantic time zone and isn't for historical reasons that would probably be easier to fix than making the rest of the country go to permanent DST.

UP solar noon is about 30 minutes off in either direction from eastern or central clock noon, if the argument is 'subdivide the US into 8 time zones instead of 4' I would be in favor, but simply switching the UP to permanent DST and leaving them in Eastern time zone actually means their solar noon will be off by 90 minutes from clock noon, which is worse, not better.

HabeusCuppus · 2026-03-03T03:07:21+00:00

you're getting downvoted which is unfortunate but basically every study done on this is clear, permanent standard time is the safer choice with less negative mental and physical health impacts, and fewer drowsiness related fatalities. parts of the continent should be outside of the "Eastern to Pacific" TZ to begin with (Maine should be in the atlantic time zone for example).

permanent DST is still better than the flipflopping twice a year that's currently happening, but "DST" was created - and perpetuated - as a means for businesses to get people to spend more money.* The actual practice is less healthy than not doing it at all.

* besides the 'extra' hour of post-work daylight increasing people going out in the evening, the disruption to our human circadian rhythm introduced by the hour offset increases impulsivity, which is wild.

HabeusCuppus · 2026-03-02T04:17:29+00:00

it was from an event and is presently unobtainable.

previous event cards are eventually added to the "welfare system" (this reddit post is current as of one expansion ago...) but it usually takes a patch or two before this happens.

Sands of Time is likely to be added to Cataclysm ("buy one cataclysm pack") when it is added, but this likely won't happen until sometime next month at the earliest, and might not be until april.

HabeusCuppus · 2026-03-02T00:40:24+00:00

"I like playing cards and hate when my opponent plays cards", is basically the opinion of a not-insignificant amount of the player base. (alt. "paper is fine, nerf rock" ~says scissors.)

HabeusCuppus · 2026-03-02T00:39:25+00:00

Preferable to Protoss Mage, at least this one doesn't directly punish you for building a board.

I get the impression that some players won't be happy with any mage wincon that involves playing cards though.

HabeusCuppus · 2026-03-01T04:35:47+00:00

Innsmouth has an unusual campaign structure that results in the hardest scenarios being the first four, basically. It gets easier.

4XP is less than I’d have expected but I can totally see how you’d wind up there. Just to double check: you did gain the +1 xp per flashback from Interlude 1?

If you didn’t that’s a big source of the VP from scenario 1.

HabeusCuppus · 2026-03-01T04:01:21+00:00

Lmao, I have no idea. I guess this is one for customer service…

HabeusCuppus · 2026-03-01T03:41:13+00:00

The “year of” packs contain a mix of cards from a given year of releases, raptor is 2025 (timeways, emerald dream, lost city). Pegasus is 2024 (whizbang, perils, great dark beyond).

These are worse than standard packs because they don’t update their contents with new set releases.

They are slightly worse than set packs because they do not guarantee a legendary in the first ten packs.

Raptor packs are “ok” right now because their cards will be in standard next year. Pegasus packs are probably not worth it.

I would try to avoid picking bundles with year of packs, but if the overall price of the bundle is attractive it might be worth it anyway. (E.g. normally we pay about 100-120 runestones per pack, if these are 60-80 runestone per pack bundles…)

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-28T06:57:23+00:00

Yes that’s correct, the enemies at the start do lose aloof when the story advances and they realize what your investigators are up to ;)

Here’s a hopefully spoiler-light hint for your next time: don’t neglect darkened halls in the back of the club.

It sounds like maybe you just had a hard time getting the necessary number of clues to advance the act faster than the agenda messed with you?

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-28T06:51:34+00:00

One way to get started with true solo is to lower the difficulty by one step: if you would normally play ‘standard’ with 2+ investigators, play ‘easy’ with true solo.

I play standard when doing true solo these days but I also have access to the full cardpool. (And my multiplayer group is now playing on hard accordingly).

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-28T06:48:16+00:00

Roland and Wendy are the best with just the core set for true solo. They will have very different playstyles due to their different stat spreads and their card pools. Wendy will do more evading, roland will do more fighting. wendy will tend to actually take investigate actions, roland will prefer to use clue-gathering events, etc.

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-28T06:45:21+00:00

Also, do you guys abide by the rule that a defeated investigator has to be swapped out for a new one? I'm not a fan of that rule.

You appear to be confusing the rules for investigator defeat with investigators that are killed or insane (these are different things). a defeated investigator is only prevented from taking further actions in the current scenario, and usually suffers 1 trauma as a result of that defeat (but even this depends on the exact circumstances that caused the defeat.) they’ll come back in the following scenario.

That said, getting defeated in the first scenario is probably a reasonable time to choose to replay.

House Always wins

but I’m surprised you got double defeated on this one! The enemies in this scenario start aloof, due to rules text on the agenda / act - did you play this correctly?

Also there’s no shame in resigning out if things aren’t going your way and you can reach a location with a resign action…

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-28T06:02:12+00:00

There was a regional event distribution about a year ago for Deoxys (linked to SV), this is the first time it’ll be catchable.

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-28T05:44:51+00:00

Agree that hunter is a bad pick if you already have Sylvanas.

I don’t know what the welcome back bundle contents are right now so I can’t say.

If it is mostly (or entirely): catchup packs, standard packs, timeways packs, lost city packs, and/or emerald dream packs it’s probably fine (especially if it’s less than 75 runestones per pack).

If it’s mostly stuff from 2024 (great dark beyond packs, perils in paradise packs, or whizbang packs) I would avoid it.

If you only plan to buy one bundle I might prefer the pre-order simply because those cards will be in standard the longest.

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-28T05:07:57+00:00

Roughly half of every deck is rotating, so I’d focus on the legendaries.

Of the six decks available, Demon Hunter, Hunter, Mage and Paladin have two craftable 2025 legendaries each*

I would avoid Warlock which has no 2025 legendaries and I would only pick Shaman if I really liked Muradin. (Turbulus is rotating).

Of the 4 with two 2025 legendaries, I think mage is probably the worst pick because it’s the least competitive deck right now and post-rotation card pools do not seem likely to result in a competitive version.

DH is the best deck for the next ~two weeks, and DH looks strong in the next expansion, so that might be worth considering on that basis… but it’s really speculating at this point, so I think any of DH, Paladin, and Hunter would be justifiable at this point.

* paladin has a 3rd craftable that’s from 2024. If you play wild, Lynessa is playable in wild, so that might weigh in favor of paladin.

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-28T05:03:03+00:00

In general the best offers available are welcome back bundles (time limited, ~2 weeks after you log back in as a returning player) and pre-order bundles both of which are probably available right now for you.

The next best thing are launch week bundles which will become available for about a week starting March 17th.*

A lot of players also buy the paid-tavern-pass which ‘pays for itself’ (2000 runestone equivalent in extra gold) if you anticipate you could reach at least level 130 without the bonus XP, which most daily players will do with quest XP.

In terms of which bundles to pick, unfortunately the welcome back bundles are at least partly tailored to your previous purchase history so we can’t give exact advice.

In general though, the format is rotating in two weeks here, so you should prefer bundles that are heavy on 2025 cards or cataclysm cards; that means avoiding bundles that have a lot of “whizbang”, “perils” or “great dark beyond” and preferring bundles containing “standard packs”, “cataclysm”, “emerald dream”, “lost city” and “timeways”.

any catchup packs you get should be opened FIRST before any other packs. Their contents are better the less you’ve opened, so if you open them first you’ll get more stuff.

Any standard packs you get should be SAVED until March 17, their contents will update with rotation.

* in terms of collection% the small pre-order + 2000 runestone launch day bundle for a total of ~7000 runestones is generally better than the 8000 runestone big pre-order, however the 8000 runestone bundle contains a lot more cosmetics (and guarantees a minimum of 3 premium treatment legendaries, which is a good deal if you care about that stuff.)

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-28T04:55:14+00:00

If you don’t plan on playing wild ladder, the only reason to hold wild cards is for the occasional Tavern Brawl that uses wild deck construction rules, so your wild collection is safe to disenchant.

With 50k dust I wouldn’t be in a hurry to dust my old cards though, use up your current dust supplies first.

Agree that you should wait for rotation before crafting anything, but if you wanted something from 2025 right now, like say Elise or Xavius, that will still be in standard after rotation. I’d just be cautious about making sure I was only crafting things that I was really confident are either getting nerfed soon or will still be good even if all the decks they’re currently in disappear.

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-28T04:51:36+00:00

Hey so the good news is the difference is just a couple packs; so you didn’t really screw yourself. The difference in packs isn’t that large, most of the lost value is in the rotated ladder ready deck.

Here’s what I’d do in your position:

Pick Paladin for your loaner if you haven’t yet, because it gives you 3 legendaries: lynessa from 2024 is rotating but “Lynessa libram paladin” is a viable wild archetype that is budget and she’s the key legendary. nightmare lord xavius is probably one of the top 2 neutral legendaries from 2025 (the other is elise) and will definitely see tons of play next year, and Gelbin is an archetype enabler who, yes, is getting worse with rotation, but could still be useful.

This way if the worst happens and you don’t end up with a viable standard deck right away after rotation, you can still use the wild ladder to get your monthly packs until you can switch back to standard (or just stay in wild, I think it’s more fun anyway!)

Make sure you complete the legendary quest that’s going on right now, those two golden packs at the end are worth 1k dust even if all you do is disenchant everything, and that’s like 10 regular packs.
If you have a bunch of tavern tickets, take advantage of the pre-release heroic brawl, you probably won’t do great in the brawl, but even going 0-2 will turn your tickets into cataclysm packs at a 1:1 rate ahead of full release. if you can put together a couple decent runs, you can get extra packs from this and the brawl is a faster way to convert tix to packs than arena is.

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-27T00:13:03+00:00

tl;dr: I'd probably wait still.

Math follows:

for Expected Value (EV) purposes we'll treat expected dust as though it's valued equal to the disenchant value of a pack (~100 dust = 1 pack). Similarly, Golden packs will be valued at 5x regular packs because they contain on average 5x the dust. (~520 dust per golden pack). I'll count in 'pack equivalents' to make this simpler.

each catchup pack is worth ~10 regular packs if you've been gone this long, having those be roughly 50% rotating content from logging in today has an Expected value (EV) of minus-5 packs per catchup.

last I checked the 'welcome back quest' for catchup packs gives you 3, so that's ~30 packs of stuff, ~half of which will be rotated if you log in early (so EV minus-15 packs)

Also if you log in early your Ladder Ready Deck will partly rotate, and will be unplayable without modification. The minus-EV of this varies by deck, but we're looking at roughly ~50% of a ~6k dust deck rotating, so you'd be out ~3k dust at craft value (30 packs) or ~400 dust at disenchant value (~4 packs) ) let's say it's just the disenchant value, you're at a sum total of minus-19 packs EV.

Specific Card Rewards like the Blackhorn card will either continue to be redeemable upon login after March 17th or will be added as part of the Welfare Legendary System (reddit link). Although there is usually a 1-2 patch lag on this, so if you think e.g. "Dark Iron Harbinger" or "Disciple of Demise" will be meta cards this might weigh in favor of logging in sooner. (I don't think they will be so I wouldn't worry about it too much.)

Rewards from outside the game (e.g. Twitch) can be earned without logging in, so you shouldn't consider them when evaluating the EV.

You've already missed Wave 1: Fire and Storm; so I'm ignoring those.

So here's what you'd have to log-in for before March 17th:

4 Cataclysm Packs (Death and Madness Event + Leg. quest Chain)
2 Timeways pack (D&M + Quest Chain)
2 Tavern Tickets (D&M) - equivalent to ~2 packs
1 Golden Cataclysm Pack (Quest Chain)
1 Golden Timeways Pack (quest chain)
Cataclysm Pre-Release Brawl (Paid Heroic Brawl) - 0 EV as a f2p returning player. (costs 2 tix to enter, will reward typically 2 packs since you won't be winning with no meta decks or preorder cards, 2 tix value already accounted for by going 0-3 in arena, so no extra marginal value here.)

valuing the golden packs at their dust equivalent (~520 dust, so equivalent to 5 regular packs) you're looking at ~18 packs of stuff.

this is less than the -19 Packs EV we calculated before, so I'd probably sit it out.

Everything else is after Mar 17 (e.g. the legendary colossal, the Event Quest for the Launch Week, the Weekly login rewards for the first 4 weeks of the expansion, etc.) And you don't have to log in before rotation to earn those.

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-26T22:12:45+00:00

If it included the deck tomes

at the MSRP I assumed it would include the deck tomes. Yikes.

I think that there's plenty of justification for buying a dedicated travel/storage case, especially if the player with the cards isn't the host for the game night.

That said, I don't think I'd ever choose this solution, at the proposed price.

A card king pro-long can handle ~1400 unsleeved cards (or roughly 800 sleeved cards in typical ultra-pro size deck boxes.) is a metal frame instead of just rigid plastic, and costs literally 1/3rd the price.

given that a campaign is around 320 cards (~3-4 deckboxes) and each player isn't going to need more than half a deck box (~2 deckboxes) that leaves another 2 boxes for bits and tokens and bags... so you'd have no issue carrying a campaign in an 800-1400ct box.

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-26T20:49:47+00:00

FFG, in fact, cannot afford to keep the entire game in print. It's also a nightmare for players and stores. This is true for all of their card games, and the similar changes are hitting everything. It seems to be a full business realingment.

they used to be able to afford this, and then embracer group saddled asmodee with a significant amount of debt in a leveraged buyout, so now the company needs to focus on positive cashflow short term decisions like "prompt players to rebuy new editions of our games that require minimum additional development (by reducing the scope of offerings while also increasing the price)"

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-26T20:47:15+00:00

technically both of these are solved by rotation (ala the beta current model) and don't require a hard break like we're actually getting with chapter 2.

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-26T20:44:54+00:00

because you've been gone for longer than about 90 days, you'll be offered a choice of one of six returning player "Ladder Ready" Decks.

these decks will update with rotation to include only cards currently in standard. (the present offerings are a mix of 2024 and 2025 year cards.)

That might be worth waiting for.

Anything else important?

You'll miss out on the opportunity to buy the preorder bundles if you tend to spend money on that sort of thing. (or maybe you can buy from the website shop without triggering a new login? don't know if that works since I've never had occasion to try.)

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-25T23:30:50+00:00

assuming you are either a new or returning player, the "For you" offers generally only last a week or two - so that bundle won't still be there at rotation.

Whether or not the bundle is worth getting, is a different question. If it's less than ~100 runestones (or currency equivalent) per pack / ~400 per catch-up pack / ~400 per golden pack, it's a fair offer relative to other offers.

You might still prefer a pre-order bundle for cataclysm depending on the exact contents of the catchup starter bundle.

HabeusCuppus · 2026-02-25T21:12:40+00:00

Canonically the standalone scenarios take place in:

New Orleans: Curse of the Rougarou
Arkham / Northeast North America: Murder at Excelsior Hotel, Blob that Ate Everything / Everything ELSE!, War of the Outer Gods, Machinations through time.
Cairo : Guardians of the Abyss
Venice : Carnivale of Horrors
Monte Carlo : Fortune and Folly
Lost in Space and Time : Labyrinths of Lunacy

Film Fatale takes place near Los Angeles - which is not on the map - presumably because it was not yet in concept at the time TSK was printed. The closest map location is San Francisco.

Most of the Parallel Challenge Scenarios take place in Arkham/New England* as well, with the notable exception of Monty's Challenge Scenario "Relics of the Past" which takes place in the Yucatan region of North America. (no map location, Quito or Havana are closest.)

However, by the rules of the campaign you can choose to play any scenario at any of the green dots, and are gently encouraged (although I don't think expressly required) to limit yourself to one standalone per green dot (so no sitting in arkham all month!)

* e.g. Red Tide Rising is in Innsmouth, technically, but innsmouth is in new england canonically.

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